She comes stealthily

Soft feet silent on the floor

Desiring treats

The cat, Bonfire, which we had before Miss Fuzzy Pants, had been declawed by his first owner. The vet did a shoddy job and the claws grew back deformed. Furthermore, they grew in right through his toe beans. Some came out the bottoms and some came out the sides.

By the time we took over his care, it was too late to do anything about it. He was fully grown and it would have meant cutting open those tender little toe beans.

So, he clicked on the laminate flooring everywhere he went. We became accustomed to knowing when he came up behind us. All our cats previous to Bonfire moved silently and we developed the “look first” habit with them.

Then we got our dog, Maddie, and she was so noisy on the flooring that you never had any doubt about where she was in the entire house. We got used to knowing where the wee ones were by sound alone.

Shortly before moving to Wyoming, we had to have Bonfire put down. He had a very aggressive illness that the vet supposed was cancer because all his other tests came back normal.

I wanted another cat quite badly. So when a stray orange cat came into our lives here in Wyoming, I decided we would adopt her. Enter Miss Fuzzy Pants.

She’s a long hair and her feet are exceptionally furry. Even if they were not, she would still walk silently. So we have had to get back in the habit of looking behind and to the sides before moving our feet. You’d be surprised at just how often Miss Fuzzy is standing right there looking longingly up at me.

Or maybe not.

Photos courtesy of Catster and Freepik respectively